Carly McCarthy: "You know, I try not to rant on Facebook. But this...if this function is even truly being considered...That's just wrong.
Assuming that this abillity is 'merely' intended to remove offensive content, if it does in fact come into existence, it will be abused. It will become a tool which people use to bully others. The internet is already an indirect, easy method of bullying and intimidating. Having the "dislike" button will only make doing so easier. Also, if this "dislike button" allows people to delete the post of another, it will in essence, silence whoever made the post. That is what we call censorship, as is mentioned in this vague article. Guess what China does? Guess what North Korea does? And Saudi Arabia? And if you think journalism is slickly bad...this is quite the treat.
Consider this, the last group of people you want to silence (if your intent is to support them) is vulnerable people who are within a minority group, who are usually less powerful, and can quickly be oppressed by larger powerful communities. Often, these people have little voice to begin with. If you want to prevent psychologically damaging and harmful content from reaching sensative audiences, you don't go about it this way. You don't always hand the power to numbers... Adversily, if you can "like" something without context, you can "dislike" something without context. That is damaging. Censorship without a reason. Decisions and judgements without information. Lack of information leads to ignorance, and cycles of abuse and suppression, all from assumption. I do not "applaud" this method at all. It will excacerbate such a cycle.
What will happen if someone makes a post that is non-offensive, or really opinionated, and people--out of spite-- (believe me, it will happen.) dislike the post? If you want to strike at the core of empathy, if you want to disconnect people, you use negativity and you make it permanent through shutting off
interaction/exchange of voices...this is how you do it. This makes stating an opinion of any kind--or really anything, (don't we value freedom of speech?) threatened. Not simply posts with malicious intent will be removed. And, depending on popularity, harmful posts may not be removed. Who is actually targeted?
To the creators and supporters of this feature, Who is to say that you have power over your own posts? This does little to protect people than it does silence those very people we are supposed to be supporting. I envision EVERYTHING and everyone being silenced. I envision that this "dislike button" is doomed to fail. And I won't necessarily feel sorry for it.
~So much for a cheaper, simpler function, Facebook~
But let me guess, 10 dislikes, and this opinion could be deleted. Hurry up facebook, before people figure it out." -Carly McCarthy, Facebook rant